Munich, Dinner

We stopped to see the Munich Olympic grounds, and rode the to a revolving restaurant high in the huge TV tower. We could look down into the stadium and other facilities under construction for Munich’s 1972 Olympic games. In one store window in downtown Munich they displayed mannequins with a real screwy hairdo. Twenty-five years later, that screwy hairdo was the latest fashion in the USA.

The Munich city hall is called the Rathaus, and there is a restaurant in the cellar (keller) of the city hall, therefore it’s called “Ratskeller,” and that’s where we ate dinner. The restaurant decor includes many large wine casts, and is made to look like a wine cellar. Our waitress was an older woman (looked like a housewife), and was very pleasant.

After we had asked for ice water, and for several refills, her face suddenly lit up with a smile, and she returned with a pitcher of water with a large chunk of ice, most likely a first for the Munich Ratskeller. Over the following years, would that other waitresses and waiters been so attentive to our need for a drink of ice water.

Emmy and the Lindas (daughter Linda and her friend Linda, AKA Pupa) had steaks, salads, and French fries, and I had ham and eggs. For dessert Linda H. had apple fritters that she said were as good as the ones Emmy makes, but Emmy did not agree. Emmy had hazelnut ice cream, and Pupa had ice cream with raspberries. The whole dinner in Munich cost 28 DM, about $7. (We still have the menu.)

Emmy used the restroom at the restaurant, and was very disgusted to find that she had to pay 20 pfennig (5 cents) for the toilet and 10 pfennig (2.5 cents) just to wash her hands. Since she did not have her purse with her, it was a little embarrassing. She thought the cost to eat in a restaurant should include the cost for things like that.

When we returned to our car we found that during our absence all the parked cars had vanished, except ours.

Our Zoll (customs) license plate and USA bumper sticker indicated we might not read German, so on our windshield was a warning, or information ticket, saying they knew we didn’t understand the signs, but please don’t do it again.